Category Archives: Crime

Oct 31 2023
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).

I desperately wanted to like this one and did everything to try and absorb something from it but I was sadly … fucking bored from start to end. It was hard work making it to the finish line and my relief at the concluding credits was not something I was expecting.

I found it all a bit tiresome, safe, unadventurous, and wholly unmemorable. I seeked out indelible shots and sequences but couldn’t find any. The characters were too insipid to care about. The score irritated me. And we then get yet another courtroom closure. I can’t think of anything else to remark upon and doubt I will. I’ll never watch this film again.

Time to stick The Departed (2006) on.

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Oct 26 2023
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Technology, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

Page Eight (2011).

Nice wee proper slow-burning spy thriller here, with a magnificently creepy Ralph Fiennes cameo as the slippery PM trying to bury the dirt. It’s a movie of subtleties and you really need to pay attention to what the characters say, how they say it, and what they omit which you think they would say. Finely acted, tightly plotted, no irritating characters, well shot.

Worth a watch.

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Oct 23 2023
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Architecture, Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United States

Devil in a Blue Dress (1995).

Despite my deep admiration for Denzel’s acting gifts, this movie is of little note, and I lost all interest with the central murder or anything that anyone was taking about. There’s not even a good thing about this; it is merely a copycat of Chinatown (1974).

It made no sense. The protagonist is in mortal danger yet keeps rocking back to the danger zone that is his house. Characters bubble away about how awful they have all been, but only when there’s a gun to their heads. Three goon cops – one of them Tom Sizemore – keep arriving with the same roughhouse antics over and over. 

It was all just a pain to watch despite the perfectly fine performances. If it were even shot well I’d recommend it for something – but nah. Boring, boring, boring, more boring. 

A boring film. 

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Oct 21 2023
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Uncategorized

This lad Joe Queenan ‘gets’ Scorsese.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/oct/20/martin-scorsese-killers-flower-moon-raging-bull-goodfellas-casino-wolf-wall-street

‘Scorsese understands that moviegoers are essentially tourists: they want to get a glimpse of depravity but then retreat to the safety of their own humdrum lives. It’s not that Scorsese approves of the toxic masculinity that permeates his films. It’s just that toxic masculinity is a cornerstone of American life – and the public are fascinated by bad behaviour.’

Well ….

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Oct 16 2023
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Technology, Trains, Transport, Travel, Uncategorized, United States

North by Northwest (1959).

The weird behaviour of the extras and background actors in this is hilarious to watch, as is the entire movie. Cary Grant’s accent makes no sense, nor does the film. The rear projection is so bad that it can only be a Hitchcock joke. As entertainment, I enjoyed every moment of it, because it’s self-aware and self-deprecating, and most unpredictable.

I think the career of Hitch was just a case of him taking the piss out of people whilst brushing up on his film aesthetics. And that’s fine with me.

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Oct 09 2023
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United States

Copshop (2021).

The ominous opening set the tone despite the humour, some of it actually funny, and this was never dull even though the Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) scenario kept most of the shenanigans indoors.

Gerard Butler wasn’t dire! He’s sometimes capable of being okay and here is one of those occasions. Frank Grillo, Cutty from The Wire, the cast is not an issue and every character was credible.

Rather thrilling hokum, genuinely inexperienced cops of mostly limited talents really struggling when up against hardened criminals.  

It does, however, wholeheartedly exhibit that infuriating habit of American cinema, characters constantly addressing one another by their names during every single exchange they have, as if the audience will have forgotten who they are.

Just stop doing it. It needs to end.

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Oct 08 2023
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized

99 Homes (2014).

Michael Shannon is quite an extraordinary actor, and only a Tom Hardy or Michael Fassbender could inject such pathos and reasoning in a snake like Rick Carver. It’s Gordon Gekko for the 2007-2008 financial crisis, but with more of a backstory and a wee bit more humanity in the very naughty lad. He clearly exploits Garfield from the start but also sees massive potential in his brains and work ethic; it’s a relationship built on a knife edge.

And it shows you, to a degree, how this system works – exploitation, cynicism, government and corporations working together to screw you. And the exploited bails them out. It’s shocking but not really surprising.

Gripping all the way through, a life lesson and a character study.

Fabulous stuff.

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Sep 18 2023
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Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie

The Irishman (2019) and those glasses explained. Kind of.

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Sep 03 2023
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Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

Bull (2021).

This was just your usual shite and defines what’s so crap about British cinema.

I hated every minute of it, from the moment the director films a moving car in the most irritating way. The writing was frankly ghastly, and I despise, again with the vehicle stuff, scenes of characters looking all serious in cars at night with classical music inevitably playing on the radio. It’s the worst kind of writing. It was all pathetic. There’s even a bit in here involving parents arguing about murder as they are gobbling down fish and chips. TV-quality acting as always; these folk should just stick to Corrie Street.

Another disgrace to cinema this. But check it out if you want some torture.

Next.

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Aug 27 2023
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United States

One False Move (1992).

The cutting, the stark directness of the style, the quite astonishing framing, this is a movie that demands your attention. The violence is visceral and brutal, and you get the feeling that anything can escalate out of nothing, which it often does. The cast are are all on the top of their game, Billy Bob Thornton a revelation in one of his earlier roles, and the late Bill Paxton once again proving that he’s incapable of a bad performance. And who on Earth was the very bad lad with the tash? Why haven’t I seen this bloke Michael Beach in anything else?

It’s such an unpredictable drama and grips the whole time. It’s also a horrible movie to watch … but for the right reasons.

And there’s a visual reference to North by Northwest (1959) that is simply magical.

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